[3.5] Build critique (Mr Immunity)

[Thurbane]

Hey all, can I please get a critique and/or suggestions for an (NPC) build? The shtick is that he has immunity or resistance to a lot of effects and conditions (yes, I am aware that this will make him quite limited in his offensive/utility abilities). Haven't done gear yet:

Human Paladin of Freedom 3/Dragon Shaman (Brass) 4/Binder 5

Feats: Diehard, Endurance, Improved Binding, Power Attack, Quick Recovery, Skill Focus (Bluff), Steadfast Determination, Strong Stomach

Commonly Bound Vestige: Buer

Immunities: Compulsions, Disease, Frigthful Presence, Paralysis, Poison, Sickened, Sleep

[jseah]

Be a Risen Martyr 0. For the Deathless templates and the juicy undead immunities without undead drawbacks. And Good alignment as well.

Can't level as anything other than Risen Martyr though, so not good as a scaling NPC.

[Zaq]

There's a feat in Heroes of Horror that makes you immune to Taint, if you use the Taint rules.

Several soulmelds give immunities. The Enigma Helm gives immunity to charm effects when bound to your crown chakra (which you can get with just two levels in Incarnate... or two feats, one for the meld and one for the bind), and the Planar Ward gives you immunity to "mental control," which is handy. The Shedu Crown gives immunity to being pushed around by a bull rush-type effect. Several higher-level binds give immunities (such as the Pauldrons of Health shoulder bind or the Necrocarnum Vestments heart bind, among others), but are much harder to get. Necrocarnum Mantle gives immunity to disease on shaping and immunity to poison on binding to the throat, but it's 1) really really evil and 2) redundant with your current immunities.

If you buy one casting each of Mantle of the Fiery Soul and Mantle of the Icy Spirit, from It's Hot Outside and It's Cold Outside respectively, you gain both the fire and ice subtypes, which combine to make you immune to fire and to cold. The spells are instantaneous, so they're yours for keeps.

I'm sure there's more out there, but that should be a start.

EDIT: Just noticed that you're a Pally of Freedom. That will make being an Incarnate impossible, though you could still be a Soulborn (which, for the record, suck) or Totemist (which is awesome, but which only gets one of the melds I had mentioned). A CG Soulborn gets immunity to paralysis at level 2, if that helps, but you won't get any melds from being a Soulborn (forget binds) until way too far in.

Are you also going for Mettle/Evasion/Slippery Mind/etc.? Or do you just want immunities?

[Thurbane]

Are you also going for Mettle/Evasion/Slippery Mind/etc.? Or do you just want immunities?
Indeed I do want as many of these as I can get.

Progressing in Binder, level 9 gets Slippery Mind, and level 13 gets immunity to energy drain and related attacks.

[SurlySeraph]

Pious Templar is a pretty easy way to get Mettle. You might also pick up the Steadfast Determination feat.

[Zaq]

Are you married to the Pally of Freedom? Two levels of Incarnate could get you three soulmelds and one bind (crown), which could net you most of what I mentioned earlier. You'd bind the Enigma Helm (immunity to charm), shape the Planar Ward (immunity to mental control), and shape the pauldrons of health (immunity to disease, sickened, and nauseated). If you wanted, binding the Impulse Boots to your feet gives Uncanny Dodge and Evasion... you can get your feet bind at Incarnate level 4, though you don't have enough binds to get both that and the enigma helm at the same time. (The feat Open Least Chakra might let you do it, but RAW is a little fuzzy on whether or not it grants a meldshaper an extra bind.) You can't be both a Pally and an Incarnate, though, since Paladins require corner (LG/CG/LE/CE) alignments and Incarnates require part-neutral (LN/CN/NG/NE) alignments, and it actually matters (unlike, say, the monk or bard).

Ironically for a Binder, the Witch Slayer class in the Pact Magic section of ToM is about the fastest way that I know of to get Mettle (2 levels) and Slippery Mind (4 levels). The fluff doesn't really fit (since Witch Slayers are all about, you know, killing Binders), but it's a good class and it's not hard to qualify for.

I don't have the book open in front of me, but I vaguely recall some stuff in Lords of Madness being appropriate here. Worth checking, at least.

[Heliomance]

Sounds like the Survivor class from Savage Species is worth looking at. It's designed around being hard to kill and not much else.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

The Alita (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=122296&) build showcased was determined to be utterly unkillable through almost any means (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=6773373&postcount=2681) shy of CL 10+ Blasphemy, certain fire effects, or 2 specific and rare weapon effects at ECL 13. You could PM JemeniZero and ask for the build, though there's enough info in the various threads to figure it out.

[Thurbane]

Not quite going for that level of cheese, otherwise I'd make him an Ikea Tarrasque and be done with it! :smallbiggrin:

[Person_Man]

If you take Combat Focus + Combat Stability (PHBII) plus any other Combat Focus Feat (I suggest Combat Vigor) you get +4 to your Will Save and +8 to resist Grapple/Trip/Bull Rush/etc. Not quite immunity to Special Attacks, but if you have a decent Str then it's pretty close.

You might also want to look into some method of getting Freedom of Movement (there are a bunch of different ways) for immunity to Grapple and most battlefield control spells.

A Ghost is undead and essentially immortal. I'm sure there's some way for them to appear corporeal in Ghostwalk or Libris Mortum.

Plus Iron Heart Surge will let you end any ongoing effect. Again, not quite immunity. But if you're worried about an important NPC being able to escape or deter the PCs no matter what they do, this is close.

[Tyndmyr]

Wear Goggles of the Golden Sun. Immunity to blindness and dazzling conditions.

[Adumbration]

Being a warforged would bring a significant amount of immunities at 1st level. With a feat, you can also make him immune to non-lethal.

Giving him feats Willing Deformity: Madness would make him immune to mind-affecting.

Warforged Juggernaut PrC would bring further immunities.

[Thurbane]

Thanks for all the good suggestions. The role this NPC will be playing is as a sometimes ally of the party. I want him to be resilient, and also have a mishmash of class abilities to keep them guessing...

For fluff, he is a crusader of the ideals of freedom, and his goals will occasionally coincide with those of the players. I want to to be a sympathetic character...

[Sinfire Titan]

Gestalt Incarnate. Lawful Neutral preferably. Binding the Spellward Shirt to your Heart Chakra gets complete Immunity to 4 spells of 6th level or lower, and the highest possible SR value this side of Full Casters. Binding the Incarnate Avatar to your Soul gives you a nice list of minor immunities (including immunity to Dazing, among others). Oh, and the Planar Chausible (or one of those two Planar soulmelds) gives you immunity to Charm/Compulsions as per Protection from X. And the Crystal Helm's Crown Chakra bind gives similar immunity.

[Thurbane]

Probably very late in the thread, but I should have noted that our group doesn't use MoI or ToB. We use all of the 3.5 books, with the following excpetions:

No ToB
No MoI
No psionics
No dragon magazine material (other than that reprinted in the hardcover Compendium)
Nothing FR or Eberron specific.
Nothing 3.0 that doesn't have an official update

...I feel a little silly mentioning it this late in the thread, though. :smallredface:

[Person_Man]

Gestalt Incarnate. Lawful Neutral preferably. Binding the Spellward Shirt to your Heart Chakra gets complete Immunity to 4 spells of 6th level or lower, and the highest possible SR value this side of Full Casters. Binding the Incarnate Avatar to your Soul gives you a nice list of minor immunities (including immunity to Dazing, among others). Oh, and the Planar Chausible (or one of those two Planar soulmelds) gives you immunity to Charm/Compulsions as per Protection from X. And the Crystal Helm's Crown Chakra bind gives similar immunity.

Off topic Incarnum question: Could a Totemist take the Shape Soulmeld feat to get access to Spellward Shirt as well?

[Zaq]

Off topic Incarnum question: Could a Totemist take the Shape Soulmeld feat to get access to Spellward Shirt as well?

Yup. That's half the point of Shape Soulmeld.

(The other half is to get melds on non-meldshapers, like Soulborns or Psions.)